


>Next Track

by inkpink



Category: Homestuck
Genre: "Garageband's Dirty Underbelly", Angst, F/M, M/M, Too Many Bird Jokes, music metaphors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-28
Updated: 2016-01-28
Packaged: 2018-05-16 22:17:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5843074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inkpink/pseuds/inkpink
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Davesprite hits shuffle.</p>
            </blockquote>





	>Next Track

**Author's Note:**

  * For [actualmuseofspace](https://archiveofourown.org/users/actualmuseofspace/gifts).



He’s crafted in a flurry of feathers. A few heartbeats, punctuated by a roll into the blinding eggshell of the kernelsprite. One last sacrifice for the timeline. He is Dave no longer.

Davesprite thinks about the past, or maybe it’s the future. Probably another path entirely. They’re only thoughts. He thinks about _his_ John and _his_ Jade and _his_ Rose, who are echoed here in offshoot. He’s sure that this is the Alpha timeline, but sometimes, it’s hard to believe. 

 

He hums the game’s opening theme to a scrawny kid in red High Tops and tries to avoid looking in the funhouse mirror of who he once was. He regards the little guy appraisingly and hopes that the poor dude knows what he’s getting into. It’s hard work being the Alpha. The job criteria changes with each tick of the clock, not to mention how easy it is to be replaced. He is a barely-living testimony.

 

Some bastard yanked him out of the spotlight, slapped on a pair of Creamsicle wings, and left him to flap in time with Bro’s fading heartbeat.

That bastard was him.

 

He grows used to the addition to his name too, the afterthought that separates him from his alt. Jokes with Prospitian or two that it would make more sense with his color scheme to call him Davefanta. The word forms a dividing line between the two Prospit dreamers - he goes to Jade, while John clings to memories of Alpha Dave.

 

He doesn’t feel regret. He didn’t want to die on that timeline. Not like Rose - _and his throat tightens whenever he tries to put these thoughts into words_ \- not like Rose fumbled through oblivion and had the Light switched off on her. 

 

At least he’s free from Cal. His hatred for that goddamn puppet had crescendoed in his mind until he felt like taking a sizzling dive from some short scaffolding. The real LoHaC experience.

 

He leaves his doppelganger to play hero. Maybe the kid will succeed where he failed. This birdbrain sure doesn’t have what it takes. Alpha Dave does though, of course he does, it all went to shit and now lame Orange Bird Dave is leaving another him to clean it up **like always.**

 

He goes to find Bro. They’ve got matching piercings now, right through the chest. He thinks Bro gives him a half smile before the fight fades from his eyes.

 

He thinks about dying, now and again. They’re only thoughts. Hell, he’s not even sure if sprites _can_ die, no matter how much he wants to in passing moments.

 

None of his friends are exactly right. It’s like searching for the perfect accompaniment to parallel your song, but GarageBand’s dirty underbelly always hits you with one wrong note to fuck it all up.

 

The cadence of Jade is familiar, though Jadesprite’s tempo is kind of a drag.

 

 _John_ sounds like he’s been resynthesized and banged out on a squeaky toy piano. Talking to him is weird and natural at the same time. He’s too young and too different and somehow too alive and not enough at the same time. It makes Davesprite’s skin crawl to listen to him.

 

They’re still bros, though. It’s not John’s fault that his rhythm’s messed up. Dave’s the one who missed a beat.

 

They play games for years and he wonders what Alpha Dave must be like to mesh with this sucker so well. He takes too long on the Create-A-Character screen, debating the addition of the marmalade wings that warped his fate so long ago. He flirts with Jade and cringes at the dissonance of it all. _Three years_ , and he’s starting to wonder if he and Alpha Dave were ever the same.

 

 He gets lost on that ship, though he rarely moves from one room to another.

 

 Rose would know him, but he doesn’t see her.  They’re hurtling through nothingness at different wavelengths.

 

He bobs his head to the remix and waits for the bass to drop.

 

 Maybe it’s him, maybe _he’s_ the problem, he’s the restless measure riddled with flat notes.

 

Absently/Fervently/Absently, he wishes for dreambubbles of another timeline. _His_ timeline.

 

Davesprite

flies

away,

 

and knows that no one will ask for him. He’s aimless, he’s searching, and now the whole melody’s wrong.

  
He and this world don’t harmonize.

**Author's Note:**

> Reach out to depressed bird boys near you. 
> 
> Ill beats to follow up with: https://phemiec.bandcamp.com/track/our-aftermath


End file.
